Pacific Pro League would love to make Clemson's Trevor Lawrence an offer he can't refuse

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence is only 19 years old and just completed his freshman football season, yet he’s already being coveted by at least one professional football league.

Sooner rather than later.

Don Yee, founder of the Pacific Pro Football League, said during a radio interview on Thursday that he’d like for Lawrence to “be our Joe Namath.”

Namath played quarterback for three seasons at Alabama before leaving to pursue a pro career early after being the No. 1 overall draft pick in 1964 by the New York Jets of the fledgling American Football League.

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence (16) talks with wide receiver Justyn Ross (8) during the 3rd quarter of the College Football National Championship at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, CA Monday, January 7, 2019.(Photo: BART BOATWRIGHT/Staff)

Yee, who is the agent for New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, said his league – which is scheduled to debut with four teams in southern California in July 2020 – will be the first to professionalize players who are less than three years removed from high school graduation.

Yee made it clear that he’d love to see Lawrence playing in his league. Despite not starting until the season’s fifth game, Lawrence guided Clemson to the program’s second national championship in three years with a 44-16 victory against Alabama on Jan. 7.

Lawrence could not be reached for comment on Friday.

“Our player population will be players such as Trevor Lawrence at Clemson,” Yee said during a pre-Super Bowl interview on 104-5 “The Zone,” a sports talk show based out of Nashville, Tennessee. “We would like to make him an employment offer, professionalize him right away, be our Joe Namath.

“Adidas is one of our founding sponsors, and I think they might want to make him an endorsement proposal. He would be professional and he would learn an NFL-style game with us before he declares for the (NFL) Draft.”

Rather than go head-to-head against the new Alliance of American Football, which kicks off its inaugural season on Feb. 9, and the XFL, which plans a return to action in the spring of 2020, Yee’s Pacific Pro Football League will play in the summer – July and August.

“Those leagues, their player population will be players who already have exhausted their college eligibility and have cycled through NFL training camps and for one reason or another have not been able to stick,” Yee said.

Players in the Pacific Pro League will receive a salary and benefits as well as paid tuition and books for one year at a community college, according to Yee.

“The NFL is the only major professional sports league in the world that doesn’t have a hand in the developmental path of its next-generation talent,” Yee said. “So what we want to do is offer that talent an employment opportunity and start professionalizing them in the NFL way so that their learning curve by the time they get to the NFL is shortened.”